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ATTACKS ON MEDIA WORKERS IN TURKMENISTAN IN 2024

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PHOTO: Khudayberdy Allashov, former Radio Azatlyk correspondent, who died on August 14, 2024

1/ KEY FINDINGS

Turkmenistan has consistently ranked near the bottom of the annual Press Freedom Index compiled by the international NGO, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) since 2002. In 2014 the number of countries was expanded to 180; and in 2024 the country was placed 175th, between Vietnam and Iran. This indicates the continuous totalitarian nature of the Turkmen regime, the lack of democracy, civil freedom and independent media. 

In 2022, Serdar Berdimuhamedov entered into a power-sharing agreement with his father, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, under which Serdar became President and his father, Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty (People’s Council) of Turkmenistan. Last year, 2024, was the second year of the younger Berdimuhamedov’s presidency, and it was characterized by the strengthening of the totalitarian nature of the regime and the suppression of any civil or political activity by the country’s citizens. Berdimuhamedov continued his father’s policy of intimidating the population by punishing in cruel and demonstrative ways the most active representatives of civil society, as well as journalists and bloggers. Punishments included forced extraditions of activists from abroad; persecution of the families of political opponents through blackmail, intrigues and provocation; and sowing the seeds of mistrust and suspicion between people close to each other.

In the Dashoguz and Lebap velayats (“regions”), law enforcement agencies systematically crack down on anyone who publicly criticizes the authorities, fights for their civil rights, or tries to seek justice or convey their problem to the president through foreign media. A horrifying example of such pressure is the fate of Khudayberdy Allashov, who died on August 14, 2024. According to sources, Khudayberdy had been ill for a long time, but his condition deteriorated further because of ongoing harassment by the authorities, as a result of his previous cooperation with the local branch of Radio Liberty (known as Azatlyk in Turkmenistan). In Lebap velayat, blogger Farhad Durdyev (real name Farhad Meymankuliev), was extradited from Turkey and sentenced to a long term in prison.

This was not an isolated case. The Turkmen authorities continue to hunt down dissidents abroad. Photos and data of human rights activists, bloggers and independent journalists who held opposition rallies in Turkey, are displayed on special notice boards of wanted dangerous criminals installed near police stations across the country. One such notice board contains photographs of civil activists Merdan Muhammedov, Enejan Salykhova, Dursoltan Taganova and Nurmuhammet Annaev. All of them participated in rallies in 2020 in Turkey, among other matters raising their voices against the Turkmen government’s attempt to cover up the consequences of the natural disaster which occurred in Lebap velayat in April 2020.

In 2024, the Turkmenistan authorities continued to ban and/or restrict the free movement of citizens. For example, on January 3, a group of first-year students who were due to fly to Russia were stopped at Ashgabat Airport and prevented from leaving Turkmenistan. Just as they were checking in for a flight to Moscow, they were turned back and told, “students have nothing to do in Russia in winter”. The students were denied boarding despite having valid Russian visas and all the necessary documents. Independent media and bloggers have reported several such cases of Turkmen citizens – for made-up reasons – being denied permission to go abroad to study or work.

2/ THE POLITICAL SITUATION AND THE MEDIA IN TURKMENISTAN

In 2023 Turkmenistan ranked 170th out of 180 places in the Corruption Perceptions Index, published by Transparency International. The country consistently ranks very low down on this list.

Last year, independent media outlets (which are mainly based outside Turkmenistan), published dozens of investigations into large-scale corruption schemes in key sectors of the economy. The people behind these schemes are frequently in senior official positions, as well as being In charge of law enforcement agencies which are called upon to fight and resist corruption.

It has become state practice in Turkmenistan to block most of the world’s IP addresses and restrict public access to the Internet. According to media reports, even completely harmless Internet resources, including professional websites that people need for work, are inaccessible.

But in the second half of 2024, blocking the Internet appeared to be relaxed. It was reported that three billion IP addresses, web hosting services and content delivery networks (CDNs) were unexpectedly unblocked. However, since the beginning of December, the country has seen another wave of blockings. It appears that the temporary relaxation was due to the authorities testing a new firewall. The system is designed to prevent unauthorized access to the network.

The country’s state media and semi-official pro-government online outlets, which are described by representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan as “manifestations of democracy and freedom of the press”, have not undergone significant changes. As in previous years, the editors of newspapers and magazines, as well as the heads of TV channels, radio stations and their deputies, were appointed and dismissed only by order of the president. No newspaper or magazine can be published, or television or radio programme aired, without first being seen and approved by the Committee for the Protection of State Secrets in the Press and the Media.

At the end of the summer the SalamNews outlet, based in the capital, Ashgabat, ceased its activities. According to Turkmen.news, the outlet was deprived of its license due to the publication of information without prior approval. SalamNews was one of the few semi-official news outlets operating in Turkmenistan. The publication produced texts in Turkmen and Russian, as well as short news in video format, which gained thousands of views on social media.

State-run and so-called “independent” media within the country all work to glorify the personality cult of the Berdymukhamedovs, father and son. The authorities force all public sector employees to subscribe to two or three print publications, one of which must be related to their professional occupation. For example, the personnel of the Armed Forces of Turkmenistan are obliged to subscribe to the newspaper “Esger”; law enforcement officers, to the newspaper “Adalat”; and teachers and preschool staff to specialized newspapers or magazines.

All state media continue to serve and please the autocracy. During the election of Serdar Berdimuhamedov as president in 2022, a campaign began focused on praising the new leader. However, real power remains in the hands of the previous president, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, in his role as chairman of the Halk Maslahaty (People’s Council). It Is still the case that any mention of the current president in publications or in TV or radio broadcasts must contain the words “Arkadagly Serdar”, which literally means “Serdar who has a patron”.

3/ PHYSICAL ATTACKS AND THREATS TO LIFE, LIBERTY AND HEALTH

In 2024, open sources uncovered some ten cases of physical pressure from the authorities on independent journalists, bloggers and/or their relatives, as well as direct threats to the lives and health of ordinary citizens who had encountered the arbitrariness of officials and law enforcement agencies and subsequently tried to convey their problems to the president through independent or social media.

In addition, throughout the year almost all independent outlets and human rights organizations covering the situation in Turkmenistan were receiving information from their sources about torture and threats towards the relatives of independent journalists, bloggers and civil activists who were criticizing the Turkmen regime while in exile. It has not been possible to establish the full details of this information. However, independent sources from the cities of Dashoguz and Balkanabad have confirmed that employees of the Ministry of National Security “conduct conversations” in the city police departments, during which they intimidate and provoke people, and arrange brawls, involving detained criminals in this. They themselves frequently engage in physical violence, including against women. There were two cases of physical violence in 2023, which became known only in 2024.

  • At the end of 2023, Turkmen activist and blogger Myalikberdy Allamuradov was kidnapped in Russia by the Turkmen special services and illegally taken back to Turkmenistan. He was broadcasting a video blog on YouTube. Later, a video about his activities was published on the website of Radio Azatlyk. Traces of blood and signs of physical resistance were found at the site of Allamuradov’s abduction. The wires of the CCTV cameras in the area had been cut.
  • On April 24, 2024, details emerged of the torture that civil activist Reimberdy Kurbanov endured in a temporary detention centre and later in a pre-trial detention centre in the city of Turkmenabat. It was thanks to Kurbanov’s photos and videos that the world learned about the destructive hurricane that had caused casualties, while the Turkmen authorities tried to cover up all information about the disaster. The regional department of the Ministry of National Security fabricated a case against Kurbanov and arrested him for 15 days. In the police’s temporary detention facility, he was subjected to psychological and physical pressure. He was kept in his underwear in terrible conditions. Every morning, he was forced to squat or kneel and, looking at the camera, swear an oath of allegiance to the president, loudly shouting parts of the oath which had been coined when Saparmurat Niyazov was the first president of Turkmenistan, such as: “If I betray my homeland or my president, then let my hand and my tongue wither”. In addition, Ministry staff tried to persuade him to cooperate with them and put pressure on him to become their informer. After his release from detention, Kurbanov managed to leave the country. In 2023, he became a member of the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia.

One fatal incident was recorded in 2024:

  • On August 14, it was reported that Radio Azatlyk correspondent  Khudayberdy Allashov had been killed. He was 35 years old. The authorities repeatedly threatened the journalist that they would “drive him to the grave” for collaborating with Azatlyk. His health had deteriorated significantly as a result of ongoing persecution and pressure from the Turkmen authorities. Earlier it was reported that Allashov and his mother, Kurbantyach, were tortured using electric shocks in the Konye-Urgench police station. As well as the arrest of Allashov and his mother, Allashov’s wife, Ejesh Arazgylyjeva, and their two small children were summoned to the Ministry of National Security (MNS) for questioning. On the instructions of the Dashoguz Ministry of National Security, local medical institutions refused to provide the journalist and his mother with medical care. It Is believed that Allashov’s untimely death was the result of torture.

Other examples of physical attacks were:

  • On November 20, the 75-year-old journalist and human rights activist, Soltan Achilova, was forcibly placed in the hospital for infectious diseases in Ashgabat. That day she was supposed to fly to Geneva to receive another award as a human rights activist. At half past seven in the morning, four men in white coats and masks came to her apartment and informed her that she had contracted a dangerous infectious disease and must be put into isolation. Achilova tried to close the front door but one of the visitors quickly snatched the keys from her hands, saying, “Why would you need keys in the afterlife?” She was forcibly taken to an ambulance and driven to a hospital in Choganly. Staff from the Ministry of National Security (MNS) had clearly prepared for this “operation” in advance. The previous day, at the request of the MNS, the hospital management had cleared the single wards which were occupied by children, urgently transferring the children elsewhere in order to accommodate the journalist. On November 25, Achilova was released from the hospital.
  • A month later, on December 20, Achilova reported details of two attempts made by the Turkmen special services to poison her. The first attempt had been in 2023, before her trip to Geneva, and the second at the end of 2024.

4/ NON-PHYSICAL AND/OR CYBER-ATTACKS AND THREATS

At least four incidents were recorded in 2024 of non-physical threats against journalists, bloggers and ordinary citizens who dared to speak publicly about their personal problems. Their relatives and friends were threatened, too. The recorded attacks included:

  • On August 4, the “Current Time.Asia” outlet published a video entitled “Turkmen Activists in Turkey: Deprived of Their Homeland and Their Abandoned Relatives,” in which Alisher Sakhatov, a civil society activist, blogger and critic of Berdymukhamedov’s regime, described how MNS officers put pressure on his relatives in Turkmenistan and ordered them to get in touch with Alisher and demand that he stop criticizing the country on the Internet. “In order to protect the lives of my relatives in Turkmenistan, I had to cut off all contact with them. In my mind I have already buried them all”, the blogger said.
  • On September 15, it was revealed that the activist Dursoltan Taganova had been receiving threats from unknown persons. In 2021 Taganova was given international protection status under the patronage of the UN and the right to reside in Turkey. She reported that since September 12 she had been repeatedly receiving anonymous telephone calls. The callers said they were police officers and demanded that she give them her work address, and come to the police station for interrogation. On each occasion, the caller gave contradictory reasons for summoning the activist.
  • On September 27, three days before Soltan Achilova’s 75th birthday, someone broke the rearview mirror on her son’s car which was parked in a guarded parking lot in Ashgabat. This is not the first such case. The police that arrived at the scene did not detain anyone.
  • In November 2024, the editor of the Turkmen.news website, Ruslan Myatiev, received threats via the website’s feedback section. The threats contained demands “to stop defaming the Ministry of National Security of Turkmenistan”. It was established that the anonymous message came from the same IP address as comments constantly come from in support of and justification of the current regime.

5/ ATTACKS VIA JUDICIAL AND/OR ECONOMIC MEANS

The number of attacks increased related to the use of judicial, administrative, legal and other measures by the Turkmen authorities to harass journalists, civil society activists, bloggers and their relatives. These methods have been used to silence journalists and to retaliate for their statements in independent media and on social media. 

  • On January 10, it became known that two women were arrested in an Internet café in the city of Turkmenabat on December 27, 2023, for sending a video to their relatives in the United States. They were escorted to the city’s police station, their mobile phones were taken away and, after interrogation, they were placed in a pre-trial detention cell. It later emerged that the video sent to the USA was of someone’s wedding. The women were told that “any photo and video material sent abroad can be used by foreign centres of ideological sabotage to destabilize the situation in our peaceful and calm country”.  The women were held until noon on December 31. One of them lost consciousness and the police had to call an ambulance. After this incident, both were released. 
  • On January 31, in the city of Balkanabad, activist and lawyer Pygambergeldy Allaberdyev was fined 200 manats ($57) under Article 364 of the Administrative Code, “On obstructing the lawful activities of state and other bodies and their officials”. His family is also being harassed. His daughter, Bibisara Allaberdiyeva, was a second-year student at a prestigious Moscow university. When she came to Turkmenistan on vacation, she was not allowed to return to Russia to continue her education. Later, during the celebration of her wedding in a banquet hall, MNS representatives ordered the owner of the hall to end the celebration early.
  • Threats addressed to Gulistan Mammetgeldiyeva came to light on December 12. She began to be harrassed immediately after the public appeals to the President of Turkmenistan which she made via the Turkmen.News website. She complained that she had been illegally dismissed from an orphanage in Balkanabad after 20 years of impeccable work. Mammetgeldiyeva and her husband were subjected to many hours of humiliating interrogations at the police department, during which officers openly threatened the couple and their nine children.  They said such things as, “by her connections with Turkmen.News, Mammetgeldiyeva with her own hands drew a target sign on her children’s foreheads”.
  • It was revealed on December 15, that back in 2023 Turkmen pensioner Gulsenem Taganova was sentenced to three years in prison for publicly appealing to the President of Turkmenistan with a request to allocate her an apartment for her years of work at a state-owned enterprise. Her son, Maksat Jepbarov, was given four years in jail on charges of helping to collect information for foreign media. This was reported by the daughter and sister of the imprisoned pair, Arzuv Jepbarova, on the channels of some Turkmen bloggers. According to Jepbarova, after she appeared in independent media she started to receive threats. At first, the MNS and the Ministry of Internal Affairs tried to put pressure on her through her bosses at work. Next, they threatened her brother, Maksat, but even this did not make her succumb to their pressure. Then the special services changed tactics and started helping her with the housing registration which her mother had asked for, but in return, they demanded that she stop communicating with independent journalists.

There were several incidents in 2024, of people being refused permission to leave the country:

  • On January 18, Pygambergeldy Allaberdyev, an activist and lawyer from Balkanabad, who had previously been imprisoned on trumped-up criminal charges of hooliganism, was prevented from travelling to Iran, despite holding a valid visa. Border guards informed him that the ban had been imposed by the Turkmen Migration Service. Two MNS officers then escorted him to the Kopetdag district police station, where they demanded that he cease his contacts with Turkmen activists abroad. They made it clear to him that all of his conversations were being monitored by the special services. Allaberdyev had been amnestied in December 2022 in connection with the hooliganism case and prior to being detained at the border, he was unaware that he was prohibited from leaving Turkmenistan.
  • Parcha Yazmuhammedova, the mother of a former freelance correspondent for Radio Azatlyk, Rovshen Yazmuhammedov, was supposed to fly on February 24 from Ashgabat to Frankfurt am Main in Germany, where her youngest son lives. But she was prevented from leaving Turkmenistan.
  • At Ashgabat International Airport on July 15, Sadokat Nurimbetova was removed from a Turkmen Airlines flight to Istanbul. An ethnic Uzbek, and a citizen of Turkmenistan, Nurimbetova is a second year student at Istanbul Medical University and the daughter of prominent Turkmen activist Hamida Babajanova. After she was prevented from leaving, the border control staff took her fingerprints and warned her that neither she nor her mother should go anywhere or make any complaints to anyone.

Other recorded incidents include:

  • On July 25, Turkish police and security officials refused entry to Turkey to Turkmen journalist and editor of the Turkmen.news website, Ruslan Myatiev. Myatiev holds a Dutch passport and was going on vacation to Antalya with his family. At the airport, he was told that he “posed a threat to the national security of the Turkish state”. After several hours of interrogation, the journalist was escorted to a plane flying to Rotterdam and expelled from the country. His wife and children were allowed to stay and continue their vacation. It later turned out that Myatiev had been added to the “stop list” at the request of the Turkmen authorities.
  • In June, the 32-year-old Turkmen blogger, Merdan Mukhamedov, the host and one of the founders of the YouTube channel “Türkmenistan-HSM”, was extradited from Turkey to Turkmenistan. He was charged under Article 183 Part 1 (conspiracy with the aim of forcibly seizing power or forcibly changing the constitutional order); under Article 185 Part 2 (public calls for the forcible seizure of power or forcible change of the constitutional order using the Internet); and under Article 191, Part 2 (open calls for extremism or other actions aimed at harming the national security of Turkmenistan using the Internet). Mukhamedov’s case is likely to be the first criminal case in recent years when political charges have been brought against a blogger. Previously, these and similar articles of the criminal code were mainly applied in cases against members of various Islamic communities. Mukhamedov is known for his statements under the pseudonym “Kemine”, including his harsh criticism of the Turkmen regime. It is not known what has happened to him and other bloggers and activists who have been extradited from Russia and Turkey. Among them are Farhat Meimankuliev, Azat Isakov, Omruzak Omarkuliev, Rovshen Klychev, Umit Kuzybaev, Dovran Imamov, Maksat Baymuradov and Serdar Durdyliyev.

ANNEX 1: OPEN SOURCES USED FOR GATHERING DATA (TURKMENISTAN)

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